Where to Post Photos for sale

[coachgns]

I've been doing lots of shooting with my new 30D and I now have alot of photos that I think are pretty good, and am ready to set up a website. I zoned out in trying to read about Html, so am looking for something simpler. Sites like Photobucket & that ilk are easy to use, but they really don't come across very well as websites. I'd like to not only show my photos there, but sell through the site as well.

Also, when you post photos for sale, do you put a copyright notice somewhere on the photo that is posted? Is it on the copy that gets sold? If so, where do you put it?
Ditto for posting photos on this site's gallery - should a copyright notice be seen in the photo?

Thanks

[poker]

I asked somewhat of a similar question. Read the following thread:

I'm lost, please help...

[mjs1973]

If you have Photoshop CS2, you can use Adobe Services. Open Adobe Bridge, go to the Tools menue, then Photoshop Services. I'm not sure which item it is once your in there, but I know there is a place in there that will allow you to upload, and sell your photos. I've never used it, so I don't know much about it, or what it costs. I do know you can password protect galleries with that service, so it you shoot a weddding and you only want the bride and groom to see the photos, you can give them the password.

[ken1953]

Hello Coach, I'm currently in the same dilemma. I have customers, but no place to host a site. In my searching, I found www.web.com . Fairly low cost, some good starter tools as well as more advanced, for more $$$, of course. And, they have lots of templates to set up your site.
I also looked at www.godaddy.com . But, they seemed less user friendly to me. But then again, I'm pretty dumb at most of this. .

Michaels suggestion sounds good. I haven't checked it out, but definitely plan on, and I also need to check out manacsa's link (which my suggestions might already be there..hehe).

hope this helps.
Ken

[PhotoRon286]

I use Clickimage.com. Mixed results so far, but we recently found out it had a problem with non IE browsers, that has since been fixed.

[adina]

If you're looking at having an actual site, as opposed to just a "store" try these two....

www.winketwebdesign.com (if that's not the site, just google winket web)
www.bludomain.com

[christos]

I was in the same predicament as you are in, I ended up hiring a collage kid to design a simple HTML site for me and then the search began for a photographers shopping cart.

There are many sites that give you the ability to sell photos but many of them charge up to 18% commissions on your sales. That’s a big chunk pf change in my book.

I ended up going with Photo Cart from Pictures Pro. It’s professional looking and I’m able to accept credit cards via PayPal, paypal only takes about 1.9% commissions on total sales. The best part about it is that it runs on your own website. View my shopping cart and you can get an idea of how it integrates and looks.

For web hosting I use Powweb.

Christos

[Lovetheart]

Hey Coach,
Have you tried Stock Photography sites? Some some don't charge any fees and you can earn up to US$800.00 per image. I know of one that is looking to include an art section as well as the normal stock images. If you are interested let me know. It wouldn't cost you anything so you have nothing to loose.

[Ronnoco]

Also, when you post photos for sale, do you put a copyright notice somewhere on the photo that is posted? Is it on the copy that gets sold? If so, where do you put it?
Ditto for posting photos on this site's gallery - should a copyright notice be seen in the photo?

Thanks

To answer the copyright part of your question, copyright is automatic, so it is not necessary to have a copyright notice on a photo. Using Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, and a variety of other editors you can watermark or embed a copyright notice in your photo, if you choose to do so, anyway. There are also other methods of embedding it in photo info. or html etc.

If you want to protect your photos on your own site and yet still sell them, you might want to set it up so that very low resolution photos are previewed but when a photo is purchased the high resolution image is sent out.

Ronnoco

[Greg McCary]

How low is low on the Res? Is what we post here low enough???
Greg

[Ronnoco]

Yes, the restrictions of this site would suit but you could also reduce quality such that a photo would start to be pixelated at more than 1/2 screen size. The viewer would still get a clear idea of the content, composition, and technique but such things as sharpness, colour and transitions from one colour to another would be less than ideal.

Ronnoco

[Greg McCary]

Thanks Ron.....

[Janie]

The first thing I did was to buy a domain name that is very easy to remember, so i bought HauntinglyBeautiful.com and set up a portal page to my 4 sites, one of which is where customers can buy photos, via my site at printroom.com (it's free with a ppa membership, by the way!).

I'm in the process of making up cards that just say HauntinglyBeautiful.com with my toll-free number. I think it could peak curiosity and drive people to my website when i leave my cards places and hand them out! ;) The key is putting up images that everyone wants to own!

[Hdr]

I would say that the more important part is how you market your work. I know a PPA certified Master who wouldn't even show up in the top 100 search results for his website, or photography, because he doesn't market himself well.

[QuadJunkies]

I have been considering this one for my photos
http://www.ifp3.com/photography/pricing.cfm

I have searched for the best looking, professional and yet EASY to use w/o taking all your profit.